The 5,938 businesses in the Australian cleaning industry generated $2,137 million in income during 1998-99, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The main sources of income were the cleaning of commercial buildings and offices ($854 million), education premises ($341 million), retail premises ($330 million) and industrial premises ($170 million). Of this income, 76 per cent was generated from private sector clients with 24 per cent from government clients.

In 1998-1999, the operating profit before tax for the industry was $156 million, which represented an operating profit margin of 7.3 per cent.

Total expenses for the cleaning services industry during 1998-99 were $1,981 million. Labour costs of $1,377 million represented 70 per cent of total expenses for the industry. The other significant expense was sub-contract payments to other cleaning businesses ($166 million).

At the end of June 1999, total employment in the cleaning services industry was 95,001 persons. Nearly half (48 per cent) of the persons in the industry worked on a permanent part-time employee basis, with 26 per cent working as casual employees. The high incidence of these staff is reflected in the average labour cost per employee of $15,200. The distribution of employment by gender was relatively even with 47,619 being males and 47,382 being females.

There were 2,026 and 1,805 cleaning businesses operating in New South Wales and Victoria respectively, which generated 41 per cent and 26 per cent of cleaning industry income. These proportions were above these States' share of the Australian population.

At the end of June 1999, there were 3,374 businesses in the industry with employment of less than five persons. These micro businesses accounted for 57 per cent of all businesses in the industry, but only 9 per cent of industry employment and 11 per cent of industry income. At the other end of the scale there were 101 businesses (2 per cent of all businesses) employing 100 persons or more, accounting for 55 per cent of industry employment, 52 per cent of industry income and 21 per cent of the operating profit before tax of the industry.

Further details can be found in Cleaning Services, Australia 1998-99 (cat. no. 8672.0) available from ABS bookshops. If you wish to purchase a copy of this publication, contact the ABS bookshop in your capital city.